“Terrified” is how Homeland exec producer Alex Gansa described his feelings about the possibility that Season 6 might be “counter factual” or “irrelevant” by the time it debuts in January, given that it explores the period of time between Election Day and the swearing in of the new American president.

Homeland‘s newly elected POTUS will be female and a junior senator from New York, where Season 6 is set. But, Gansa hastened to add, “Although she’s a woman, she’s a little Hillary, a little Donald and a little Bernie Sanders.”

He continued: “If you listen to Donald Trump, he says there’s people that run the government from administration to administration and they have completely screwed the world up” and the new Homeland POTUS will reflect that, as well as Sanders’ “progressive agenda.” But she also will have Hillary’s pragmatism “and looking at this world as she sees it from the inside.”

As to the fate of Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend), who seemed to be offed, then offed again, last season, Gansa acknowledged he is alive at the start of Season 6. “But I want to be careful about revealing his condition. He suffered a major stroke last season, and his very existence is in question. He’s a very changed and altered Quinn this year,” Gansa promised/warned.